Passive House Canada Secures Grant to Accelerate High-Performance Building Standards

Passive House Canada has been awarded a grant of 1.6 million over three years from Natural Resources Canada’s Codes Acceleration Fund.

This funding will help support the development and delivery of training programs for building officials and airtightness field testers and designers, as well as a technical assistance program for component manufacturers.

These initiatives aim to help accelerate the adoption of high-performance buildings across the country, as well as address key barriers, and foster a more sustainable future.

The grant will help to create targeted training modules designed to equip building officials and airtightness field testers and designers with the required skills to meet the upper tiers of national building codes.

Additionally, the grant will help high-performance component manufacturers meet the decarbonization goals of social housing providers. These programs will also address critical knowledge gaps and capacity issues that affect the progress of high-performance building projects.

“We are incredibly honoured to receive this grant from Natural Resources Canada. This funding will enable us to tackle some of the most pressing challenges in the building sector, such as knowledge gaps and capacity issues. By providing targeted training and technical support, we aim to create a robust high-performance building sector capable of meeting ambitious energy performance standards,” said Chris Ballard, CEO of Passive House Canada.

The training modules include Building Officials Training, a virtual training aimed to enhance the expertise of building officials in reviewing and approving high-performance building plans and Airtightness Field Testers and Designers Training, an in-person training that provides field testers and designers with the knowledge required for conducting airtightness testing on large buildings.

The modules also include a Component Manufacturers Technical Assistance Program in which Passive House Canada is seeking to engage manufacturers in developing high-performance windows, building envelopes, and ventilation systems. This program aims to foster collaboration with social housing providers, create component specifications and drive market transformation.

The expected outcomes of this initiative include increased availability and affordability of high-performance building products, enhanced local capacity for energy-efficient building design and construction, and improved compliance with the highest tiers of national building codes.